Waiting for the elevator yesterday, I noticed a fellow elevator rider engrossed in one of the paperback installments of the “Twilight” series.

After not giving into the temptation to offer my unsolicited opinion of the series, I observed that she was very intent on the book. Or to put it another way, she was really, really into the book.

So much so that when the elevator arrived, she only glanced up to see which one it was and then proceeded to walk into the elevator, while reading. She then proceeded to ride down, fully immersed in the book the entire time. Once we got to the stopping point, we moved out and I noticed that she kept reading and walking along for a long period of time–probably far longer than I ever could have both walked and kept my nose buried in a book.

It struck me as slightly amusing because while I love to read, I’ve never been one to read while you walk. I guess part of it is a fear I’d walk into something, but another part is I like to have some bit of concentration while I read. Yes, I do read while I’m using the stationary equipment at the gym, but the odds of some unexpected hazard (such as say a person, animal or car) are far less there than say, walking out of an office and on the street.

I will admit there have been and are books that have grasped my attention, making me eager to read what happens next. But the most harm I’ve been able to cause myself there is losing sleep or being late getting somewhere becuase I felt I just had to get through one more chapter or the next few pages.

Of course, the thing that bugged me more about this–the reader took the book at one point, bending back the spine completely. I’m just the kind of reader who likes to try and keep the spine in tact on my books, especially paperback ones. But that’s my own quirk, I guess. And she might think my reading habit is just as different as I find hers…